Visualization in a modular software system

Abstract

A community of collaborative software agents work together in a domain to provide functionality such as providing of communications services or control of a chemical process. A system is provided for building such communities of collaborative software agents. Each software agent has data concerning its relationship(s) with other agents of the community. A visualizer is provided for debugging the community which offers several partial views of the communications between and within agents, organized according to the relationships between agents. By using multiple partial views, such as messages between selected agents and job status reports within single agents, the visualizer is capable of particularly effective debugging.

What is claimed is:  
     
       1. A visualization apparatus for use in a software system for controlling, monitoring or managing a process or arrangement, said software system comprising a plurality of software modules provided with means to communicate with each other, wherein the visualization apparatus comprises: 
       means to store and effect display of communication instances, or data relating thereto, occurring in relation to a single software module, and/or between at least two of said software modules,  
       means for obtaining organizational data in relation to the software modules, said organizational data determining a collaborative relationship between two or more software modules, and  
       means for processing the communications instances or data prior to display, such that said communications instances, or data relating thereto, can be displayed in a manner determined by the organizational data, wherein  
       the means to effect display of communication instances provides dynamic redefinition of at least one of organizational data, and/or communication data with respect to one or more software modules in response to an input representative of changes to at least one of organizational data, and/or communication data with respect to one or more software modules, said dynamic redefinition being provided during debugging and/or analyzing a behavior of said one or more software modules.  
     
     
       2. An apparatus according to claim  1  further comprising a set of selection means, at least two selection means from the set of selection means providing visualization of communication instances related to different activities of the software modules in use of the system, such that use of said two selection means provides visualization by means of two partial views of the history of activity of the software modules. 
     
     
       3. An apparatus according to claim  2  wherein the set of selection means provide partial views based on any two or more of the following: 
       i) internal data and events in a software module;  
       ii) task allocation between software modules;  
       iii) task allocation and scheduling within a single software module;  
       iv) statistical data concerning activities of the plurality of software modules; and  
       v) communications between a set of software modules selected by reference to organizational data concerning collaborative hierarchical relationships between the software modules.  
     
     
       4. An apparatus according to claim  1 , wherein input include signals representative of at least one of browse-through, add, modify or delete aspects of the organizational data. 
     
     
       5. An apparatus according to claim  1 , wherein the input include signals representative of at least one of kill, suspend action of and/or resume action of one or more software modules. 
     
     
       6. An apparatus according to claim  4 , wherein the inputs include signals representative of at least one of skill, suspend action of and/or resume action of one or more software modules. 
     
     
       7. An apparatus according to claim  5 , wherein aspects of the organizational data include current jobs, resources, tasks, organizational relations and knowledge, and collaborative relationships previously allocated to a module. 
     
     
       8. An apparatus according to claim  6 , wherein aspects of the organizational data include current jobs, resources, tasks, organizational relations and knowledge, and collaborative relationships previously allocated to a module. 
     
     
       9. An apparatus according to claim  1 , wherein aspects of the organizational data further include a time-out period for acceptance of a job allocated to a software module.